The rare virus causing an outbreak in Congo suspected of killing more than 130 people is less common than others that cause Ebola disease.
This is complicating the response because there are no specific treatments or vaccines.
“There’s nothing even close to ready for clinical trials,” said infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist Dr Celine Gounder, who treated patients in West Africa during the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic.
“And so, that means responders, healthcare workers and other aid workers are really back to the basics.”
World Health Organization (WHO) Science and Strategy senior adviser Dr Vasee Moorthy said the most promising candidate vaccine to address the Bundibugyo virus would not be available for at least six to nine months.
This virus has caused two other outbreaks, all in the same region of the Congo River basin, said University of Texas Medical Branch virologist and veterinarian Dr Tom Ksiazek.
He previously directed the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Special Pathogens Branch, which first identified the virus in 2007.
Other viruses that cause Ebola disease are the Ebola virus (sometimes called the Zaire virus), the Sudan virus, and the Taï Forest virus, which is not known to cause large outbreaks.
The virus is spread through close contact with sick or deceased patients’ bodily fluids, such as sweat, blood, faeces or vomit.
Healthcare workers and family members caring for sick patients face the highest risk, experts said.
“So, very often, we see doctors and nurses among the first to be infected and to die,” said Dr Gounder, who is also KFF Health News public health editor-at-large.
From the few outbreaks health experts have seen, Bundibugyo might be slightly less deadly than Ebola virus or Sudan virus.
“I think a 30%-plus mortality rate is still quite scary, but it’s hard to say with a lot of precision because we don’t have a lot of experience,” she said.
In the other two Bundibugyo outbreaks, initial cases were identified early, Dr Ksiazek said, allowing for a quick public health response.
This includes getting healthcare workers proper protective equipment, finding and isolating people who were exposed, and offering supportive medical care to patients.
Proper medical care “reduces mortality significantly”, he said.
That includes giving patients lots of IV (intravenous) or oral fluids, Dr Gounder said.
Health workers are now working to find and isolate cases, trace their contacts, and educate people about how to avoid the virus.
In the West African Ebola epidemic, ensuring safe methods of burial was key to stopping the spread, said Dr Gounder, as people were getting sick from preparing their loved ones’ bodies for funeral rites.
Making sure health workers have proper protective equipment is also critical, experts said.
“Of course, it’s problematic because vaccines are some of our best tools for combating infectious diseases,” said Tulane University epidemiologist and disease ecologist Dr Lina Moses.
But other public health tools – public education, contact tracing, quick testing – still work, she said.
“It’s important to keep in mind that every single Ebola outbreak that has occurred in the (Democratic Republic of the Congo) – we’re on our 17th now – has been stopped,” she said. – By Devi Shastri/AP
